Moontlikhede en beperkinge van litteraturé engagée: Hans Magnus Enzensberger

The aim ofthis study is an inquiry into the phenomenon of "commitment" in literature - both in terms of its potential and limits to cause directly, or facilitate indirectly, changes within a specific socio-political context. To concretise the more general, theoretical ideas concerning littérature engagée, the study focuses on the description of the oeuvre of Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of the most important modem (committed) poets of German literature - to illustrate thus the development in his attitude towards commitment, and, by implication, to shed light on the theme of commitment as such. The first, introductory chapter circumscribes the literature-historical and socio-political contexts within which Enzensberger functions as a committed writer. Apart from a concise historical overview of the figuration of the problematic nature of commitment in a few aesthetic approaches, the focus is primarily on the historical context, since it is indeed the empirical socio-politics which are thematised by the committed artist. Attention is thus specifically devoted to the political and cultural implications of the development of the West German state of prosperity. The chapter concludes with indications of the intellectual influences on Enzensberger's reaction to the aforementioned - both in terms of his socio-political analysis (to a large extent determined by the Neo-Marxist assessments of Theodor Adorno), and his aesthetic considerations (of which Gottfried Benn and Bertolt Brecht are the main influences). The next three chapters describe Enzensberger's essayistic, dramatic, narrative and poetic work - especially in terms of whether it has a "committed" nature, or not. In chapter two his essayistic work is discussed, precisely because his aesthetic considerations, and the changes and developments accompanying it, figure explicitly here. Special consideration is given to the "Bewusstseins-Industrie" (a further development of Adorno's "Kulturindustrie" - an umbrella term to describe the diverse media and methods which aim to stabilise relations of domination), a motif which is repeated in Enzensberger's essays - and which consequently also determines his socio-political attitude. Another cornerstone of the study is a discussion of some essays which specifically thematise the relation "literature-politics" - because these also serve as theoretical framework for the literary texts discussed in chapters three and four. In chapter three Enzensberger's commitment is discussed against the background of his dramatic work (with specific reference to the documentary drama Das Verhor von Habana), his prose (in particular his only novel, Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie), and his role as editor of historical and literary texts. The development from optimism to a resigned acceptance of the futility of littérature engagée, theoretically accounted for in the essays, is here represented in a literary form. Chapter four focuses on Enzensberger's poetic oeuvre (1957-1995), where a similar thematical development is noticeable. Volumes of poetry are discussed individually, after attention is devoted to the most important formal-technical aspects of his poetics, namely "Entstellung" - which is characteristic of Enzensberger's Adornian concept of commitment. In conclusion, some remarks are made in chapter five about littérature engagée in Afrikaans - in comparison with and in reference to the foregoing investigation into commitment in Enzensberger's work. The focus is especially on the work of André P. Brink and Breyten Breytenbach as important exponents of committed literature in Afrikaans. The debunking of littérature engagée, discernible in Enzensberger's work, is thus contrasted with the optimistic point of view of in particular Brink - a juxtaposition which, as before, blurs a straightforward evaluation of the committed text and the committed artist.